Note: This article is from the Globe’s original online special section on the Spotlight investigation into clergy sex abuse.

As news broke in early 2002 of a clergy abuse coverup in the Boston Archdiocese, they began to come forward: Victims of abusive priests who had remained silent for years, ashamed to tell their stories or afraid they’d never be believed.

Haunted by the abuse, many victims wrestled for years with depression and drug abuse. Some ended up in prison. Others committed suicide because of the abuse, according to their relatives. In Baltimore, one man turned with rage on his attacker, shooting the priest he claimed molested him.